Manila, Philippines
Right now we are in one of the auditoriums of the University of Asia and the Pacific.
Everything is prepared, decorated and we are all excited because
through these doors we are going to welcome...
Welcome Father, thank you for coming from Europe to visit us.
We know it was a long flight and we want you to rest in this get-together.
Please feel free to remain seated and relaxed.
Father...
24 hours earlier
Long live the Father!
Mabuhay Father
A gift for you.
I'm a girl from San Rafael.
This get-together is really something big, but at the same time something intimate.
Hello Father,
My father and I wrote you a letter, and your reply was a great comfort.
Spending time with Christ helped me earn my bachelor's degree last year....
Father, I am Paula Shane Huete
I grew up with my grandparents since my parents separated
when I was only eight years old.
I am the oldest and I have four siblings.
You didn't speak only in English, did you?
In Filipino, Tagalog.
I was saying, I understand English less and less.
There are painful family situations, and in those situations,
as everything in the Christian life, the first thing is prayer.
Pray for those people, for the family when it is separated.
And by praying, one is also an instrument of unity to unite what has been separated.
And then, forgiving. Forgiveness is very important.
All of us, when we pray the Our Father,
we pray some words that Jesus Christ himself has said to us.
Forgive us as we forgive.
We believe that music is a gift from God,
is a talent that becomes a means to develop our relationship with him.
Father, my name is Vilmar
I have graduated from Dualtech Training Center,
and now I work at the same school as one of the Junior Learning Facilitators.
My father passed away when I was 12 years old,
and my mother worked as a laundry woman in our village.
My mother raised us with determination so that we could finish senior high school.
I met Dualtech when I was still working at a food manufacturing company,
where my supervisor was also a Dualtech graduate.
And he encouraged me to continue training to have better opportunities.
There is no person of you, nor anyone in the world,
whom God has cast aside, without any plan for him.
For each one of us God has a plan.
I met friends and Cooperators from the island of Samar and Leyte.
She is a friend from the European Union who I met...
I am Rowena Nieves A. Tan. I am a presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court.
Anyone who has a brush with the law or experience with the court,
is a wounded and broken person, whether it is the complainant or the defendant.
One thing I learned from the formation I received at Opus Dei
is to see souls behind the files, of the cases that we have.
Souls that have to be helped, loved and respected and cared for.
Thus it was that the Father spoke to us about sanctifying work.
Not only do we find God, most principally,
in the Eucharist and in prayer.
We find him also at work, in ordinary life,
in dealing with other people.
Because everything is for us, can be, an occasion of encounter with God.
Because God is really with us.
I don't have to leave the world to be holy.
I can be whatever I want to be: lawyer, judge, whatever.
And that's what actually attracted me to Opus Dei.
Hello Father, I am very happy to have this opportunity to meet you.
I wish that you visit us more often in the future
That's in Chinese.
Hi, my name is Ace Dionisio. In Chinese my name is
and I am part of the people who organize activities in the heart of Chinatown.
Our group is called Frontier Development Group.
The Chinese are well known for being hard workers, and this is a good way
to spread the message of St. Josemaria in the middle of the world.
We have observed that in addition to the usual monthly talks, recollections and circles
we enjoy very much the friendship and camaraderie over meals we have after the activities.
Good morning Father, today some girls are with me to
to perform a popular Filipino folk dance
called Itik-Itik [ducklings]
Father, despite my 81 years,
I feel incredibly happy.
Because this life has a meaning that many times we don't discover,
and we don't understand the way of life.
But if we want to, if we want to respond to the grace of God,
he leads us to happiness always, in heaven and also on earth,
because we can be happy, also in this world, even if there are sufferings,
because God's grace overcomes any distress.